What's in a Name?
by RainbowCubes87
Summary: How the Jackson children got their names. I think it's suitable for all ages. Told from Daniel's POV.
1. Danny Jackson

**WHAT'S IN A NAME?**

Chapter 1: Danny Jackson

People often wonder why our children have the names they do and since I can't tell anyone what I do for a living it makes explaining that kind of difficult. I was there of course for the birth of our first two so I had a hand in naming them. Although they aren't original names at least they're normal.

Daniel Jonathan Jackson. Who goes by Danny, and is my clone (according to; Jack, Sam, Vala, Cameron and even Teal'c.) is 13 years old.

Vala wanted to give our eldest son my name to honour me, which I found strange at the time, until someone reminded me of the number of times I've either died or gone mission – THANKS JACK, like I really needed reminding of that.

Although I have to agree, from the clone aspect, he is the image of me at his age, except his hair isn't nearly as long. Bright blonde hair and my crystal blue eyes, usually framed by his glasses. He's not exactly tall but he's getting there. I suspect he'll rival my height once he's finished growing.

Vala is exceptionally happy that he looks like me and I don't quite know how I feel about that. I'm torn between awe and very, very, very disturbed. Of course his personality is also similar to mine. He'd do anything, and I do mean anything, to help a friend or his brothers and sisters.

Jonathan as you've probably already guessed comes from 'honouring' my bestfriend Jack. He was thrilled at that aspect, you can imagine. Jack suggested 'Jack' but Daniel Jack Jackson just seemed a bit…I don't know, lame and or stupid. I'm going with stupid, for now. My bestfriend, the retired Air Force General, actually jumped up and down and pumped his fists in the air when I told him what I was naming my son. And yes I'm being serious.

Where Vala originally comes from it's a tradition apparently to name your first born son after a grandfather. Melburn or Jacek, hmm tough choice. I loved my Dad of course but I wouldn't subject my own child to either of those names. Vala wanted to keep to tradition and wouldn't let me call him Jacek, which I really didn't want to anyway so we were stuck with Melburn. Then she throws me a compromise and say she'll forego the tradition if and only if she can call our eldest son 'Daniel', I had no choice but to concede defeat.

So it wasn't really my choice in the end. I'm sure she came up with that tradition on purpose just to get her own way but she would've in the end anyway. I'll never ever admit that I knew she was lying to get her own way. She's not like that anymore. Not about the important stuff. When she tells me she loves me, she means it. When she tells me the kids ate my chocolate however I don't believe a word, but I let her think I do.


	2. Claire Jackson

**WHAT'S IN A NAME?**

Chapter 2: Claire Jackson

Claire Samantha Jackson. She doesn't really have a nickname. She's a mix of Vala and my mother and is 11 years old. She has the same colour eyes and facial structure as Vala but she's got my mother's hair colour and her personality. I don't know how that happened.

This time it was my choice, although Vala insists it was hers, to name our eldest daughter after my mother. Vala originally wanted Janet or Sha're but I couldn't do that to her, despite her justification that they were both strong women and should be remembered. Of course we had a massive argument about the fact I'll never forget Sha're and Vala being pregnant at the time had taken it the wrong way because of her hormones.

Which resulted in her throwing me out and me storming off to Jack's for a beer before she cried down the phone the following morning and begged me to come home. Besides, although I cared for Janet in a way I never got to show or even tell her in fact I couldn't name my daughter Janet Jackson, just like I couldn't name the baby Michael – the name Vala suggested for a boy. I'm not that cruel and I had my fair share of bullying when I was at school and I had a normal name.

So I suggested my mother's name which low and behold, Vala actually liked. I was pretty surprised about that because the other names she liked – she'd written a list, were all 'unique' and horrible, like D'Argo or Zhaan. I haven't got any idea where she got those names from, although I think she should stop watching science fiction shows with Teal'c, its brain rotting material really and why she needs to bother, when we live it almost every day is beyond me.

Having settled on Claire for a first name we let Danny, who was 2 at the time, suggest a middle name and he said 'Anny Sam' which his way of saying Auntie Sam. Vala and I decided to use Sam's full first name because Claire Sam Jackson sounded a little disjointed.

Sam was almost as happy as Jack had been when we told him what we were naming Danny. She even did the fist-pump thing and then hugged Vala and I. I think she was embarrassed, not by what she'd done but by the fact she'd seen Jack do the same thing just over two years ago and had called him 'a big kid' because of it.

Claire is unfortunately, though not in Danny's case, the only child that I named. Sometimes I wonder what Vala would've called her had I not been there, like I wasn't for our younger children. Sam said something about Vala saying if I had gone missing again or died she would've called our daughter Danielle Sha're Jackson. Yeah a Daniel and a Danielle and they're not twins. And even if they were I wouldn't use such blatantly similar names. I'm just glad I could be there for the birth of our first son and daughter.


	3. Indy Jackson

**WHAT'S IN A NAME?**

Chapter 3: Indy Jackson

Indiana O'Neill Jackson is my second son and is 8 years old. Jack delights in calling him 'Dr. Jones'. I'm starting to see a trend with my boys, because as much as Danny looks like me, so does Indy, except he's got longer hair.

He's the first of four children whom I didn't get a choice in naming. I happened to be missing…presumed Alive (by Jack and anyone who knows my reputation). I'd been doing some inane documentation of a ruin on a planet whose designation I can't remember. I seemingly vanished into thin air, or that's what it seemed like to SG-12.

I don't remember what happened during that time, but I was missing for four weeks. Vala didn't handle my disappearance well, I've heard from all of my team that she became depressed and Sam and Jack stepped in to help her with our three children.

Vala didn't name our son and Jack refused to call him 'Baby' so he nicknamed him Indy for Indiana Jones. His justification for that was that there was already a Danny and he didn't want to confuse our eldest son. I think he was lying, personally. After 3 weeks of calling our second son Indy it just kind of stuck and Vala let Jack fill out Indy's birth certificate. This was a mistake and had I been there I never would've let Jack name my child.

As much as I hate the name and wish he'd gone with Henry instead of Indiana, I find it surprising that Indy loves his own name. He thinks it's cool, like the fictional character and he thinks archaeology is cool too, which makes Jack feel proud, that my son wants to be an archaeologist like his namesake and Father. I think its…weird, not Indy looking up to me but Jack feeling proud about it. I'm glad it's a real name and not just a mismatch of letters or something rude and or disgusting.

There were some other names considered, apparently there was a poll on my son's name which is incredibly disturbing. Among those to suggest names were Walter, Siler, General Landry, Mitchell, Carolyn and Bill (Dr. Lee).

The names on the poll were;

Daniel Nicholas Jackson Jr

Melburn Daniel Jackson

Nicholas Daniel Jackson

Henry Jones Jackson

Indiana O'Neill Jackson

Howard Carter Jackson

George Edward Jackson

Edward Stanhope Jackson

Molyneux Herbert Jackson

About the only one of those I even like is George Edward Jackson because to be honest you'd never make the connection to archaeology unless you added Stanhope, Molyneux or Herbert to it. I'm glad they did the research albeit very quick research and it probably took all of 5 minutes for everyone but Sam who probably knew who he was anyway.

Some of the names were written off almost immediately like; Daniel Nicholas Jackson Jr, Nicholas Daniel Jackson and Molyneux Herbert by Sam. Unfortunately she thought naming my son after Indiana Jones would be cute and so that name stayed. Indiana O'Neill Jackson got more than 30% of the overall vote and I'm told nearly 300 people voted. Although I suspect this was just to prove a point, because I have no doubt that Jack was already set on Indiana for my son.

But Indy suits my son and he's happy with his name. As long as he is happy that's all that matters.


	4. Ace & Amy Jackson

**WHAT'S IN A NAME?**

Chapter 4: Ace & Amy Jackson

Action Emerald & Darling Amethyst Jackson, really Vala? What the…hell? What drugs did they give Vala for her to think those were good names? They're 6 year old boy/girl twins. And again I wasn't there to name them. I was off-world yet again. I begged Jack to get me out of the negotiations on a dreadfully dull planet full of more dreadfully dull people, but the President showed up and ordered me to go. Brilliant. I blame the President of the United States for the horrible names which my wife, as wonko as she is, decided to name our children.

It really doesn't help she gave them precious gems as middle names. I mean, come on. And I was only gone for 3 days, I come back and the base personnel were laughing hysterically and I could only imagine what she'd named our children. As if Jack naming Indy wasn't bad enough. Sam told me that Vala originally wanted Daniel and Danielle but was warned off those terrible choices (because they were too similar and we already had a son called Daniel). In retrospect I'd have taken two Daniel's and a Daniel over Action and Darling Jackson.

For several weeks after I came back from the negotiations on the planet of the dreadfully dull, I couldn't bare to call the twins by those names. Jack, Sam and Mitchell came up with several ideas for nicknames. Action's were; Tony, Emery, Ace and AJ. Well Jack picked Ace because it was cool. No surprise there. And Darling's were; DJ, Lin and Amy. After Sam decided Amy was a good nickname we all started calling her that.

Ace is very much like his mother, he has her fearlessness and sometimes her irritating habit of being immensely irritating, jet black hair, grey blue eyes but somehow my bad eyesight transferred to him, just like our other 2 sons. Vala was disappointed that he looked like her. Apparently I should have an army of sons who look like me so they can add 'attractiveness' to the gene pool, that's creepy.

Darling is the image of Vala but with my eyes (and yes I mean she wears glasses too). Her temperament is more like mine, although she can be just as mean-spirited as her mother when she's annoyed, usually with Ace. She can wriggle or charm her wait out of anything and I'm almost ashamed to say she's just as cunning as her mother, she has me wrapped around her finger and she knows it. Just like her mother.

We had another argument, about the twin's names, only this time, after they were already named. Vala refused to budge on the issue, despite my hate of both names. I wasn't there for their births and even though it wasn't my fault she blamed me so either way I lost.

Vala really didn't think about the name Darling. That's what she calls me. Has always called me in fact, I imagine that it would've been confusing now if we still called Amy 'Darling'.

The twins think their names are Ace and Amy. Explaining the twin's real names to their teacher on the day we enrolled them was…fun, NOT!


	5. Pip Jackson

**WHAT'S IN A NAME?**

Chapter 5: Pip Jackson

Pirate Princess Jackson wasn't named by Vala, or me. She was named by Cameron Mitchell, whom I will never forgive for the god-awful name he's bestowed on my baby girl. Poor Pip is only 3 years old and doesn't yet know how cruel kids can be.

Vala had a terrible time with Pip's birth. She was ill for a while after our daughter's birth so Cameron named our baby. I would've thought the man had some sense. Princess is a given he's always called Vala that and because it's only a middle name I really have no problem with it.

In fact I would've preferred it if he'd given her Princess as a first name, especially over Pirate. I don't know what he was thinking when he gave her that name. I suspect he took leave of his brain and just picked the first word he could think of when Danny asked him what Mommy used to be like.

Pirate isn't even a name, much like Action and Darling aren't but at least there aren't many negative connotations to the names (except if you call Ace 'Action Jackson' then he sounds like a porn star and a bad one at that). It's a terrible name and no matter how much Vala and Cam disagree I will never ever change my mind.

We didn't really decide to give her a nickname, it just sort of happened. I couldn't call my little girl Pirate so instead I called her Princess. It wasn't a problem because I don't use the pet name for Vala. She's been a Goa'uld Queen, for crying out loud, so I wouldn't dare.

I really hope that Pip when she's old enough will decide to change her name on her own because I can't fathom how it's going to sound on her wedding day. Not that she's ever getting married of course, she is my baby girl.

I tried unsuccessfully to argue my point with Vala and it got a little out of hand. She asked if I was ashamed of who she used to be and I ended up on Jack and Sam's couch yet again when the disagreement became blown up out of proportion.

Pip (whom I will never, in a million, million years call Pirate) is ironically the spitting image of her mother. She has blue-grey eyes and hair just as black as her mother's and just like Vala and Amy I can't say no to her. I can tell our son's no all day long and they've stood and screamed at me until they've gone blue in the face but I've never wavered in denying them something or punishing them. Vala says I'm too hard on them and that I favour the girls. I don't, really I don't. It's just so damn hard to say no to them, especially when they start crying with real tears.

I think Vala purposely taught the girls how to get their own way, even more so when the person in their way is a man and it's not just me either. They get their own way with Jack, Cam, their boys, Teal'c and our own sons.

That's how our 6 children got their names. I'm kind of hoping we don't have any more so my wife and my friends can't give them horrible names. And well if we do then I'll quit my damned job before I let someone else (besides Vala) have any say in naming my children, because apparently I'm surrounded by idiots. Lovable as my friends are, they are idiots (with the exception of Teal'c).

**A/N:** _I wrote all five of these chapters in about an hour, with my two year old running around, so I'm sorry if there are any mistakes and although I intended to use Daniel, Claire, Indiana once I started with those I couldn't help but think about other stupid names to call your kids. I just had this weird desire to name the baby of the Jackson family Pirate Princess. Action and Darling are almost as bad as that. _

_Please review if you'd made it this far.  
_


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